I'm a CCIE, VCP, RHCE: Hear me roar!

Some time ago I wrote an article called Free the Gladiators about the negative aspects of having uber-certified experts, which I called Gladiators: they have deep knowledge about one topic, and I think the more one knows about one topic then the more inertia you have.

Later this month I’m presenting on the same topic, this time titled “The Collapse of IT Silos and The Rise of the Data Center Engineer”.  Who says technology can’t drive change, Mr ITIL?  Time to eat those words, and change your religion while you’re at it.

I’m doing various pieces of research and one is to get some input from my handful of Dear Readers: what kind of Gladiator are YOU?

When I look at the profiles of people I am acquainted with on Twitter, their Blogs and LinkedIn, it amazes me how multi-skilled they are with certifications in multiple disciplines.  Networking, storage, virtualization – these guys do it all!

Scott Lowe, now of EMC, is one of my favourite examples: he can configure a Nexus 5K switch one minute, and be deploying vSphere HA the next, and has time to do analyst type work.  Great hire, EMC!  Another is my team mate, Chris Paggen, who, like Scott, is also an author, CCIE, VCP and knows more about IT than I thought possible: think Spock but with a wicked sense of humour   I’m lucky to work with both of them.

Scott is the guy I’ve previously put on the Data Center Engineer pedestal: he’s skilled in multiple data center disciplines and even where he’s not knowledgeable he can work with a vendor expert in that area.  This kind of multi-talented individual is critical to any IT organization, be they an end-user enterprise, service provider or vendor.  Chris is another example with different strengths, but he could also do “anything” in today and tomorrow’s data center.

But how many Scott Lowes and Chris Paggens are out there?  I need to find out how many I know, what they are doing, and what they think.  So I put a little Google Docs form together to find out.

Five questions, should take you five minutes.  It’s little investment on your part but you’ll be doing me a huge favour!

Tell me what kind of Gladiator you are by answering five simple questions – THANKS!

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